396 
NOTES TO THE 
would have exceeded that of any other I ever saw. Many otters 
have been taken in our Broad district, near the same river and 
its tributary streams, which appear to be their favourite resort. 
A fine specimen of about 201b. was skated down on Ormesby 
Broad a few days since, and inflicted a very severe wound on 
the hand of one of its captors, who got hold of the beast's tail. 
The marshy district in the valley of the Waveney, and especially 
near Fritton and Oulton Broads, is also a favourite hahitat of 
the otter. The largest authenticated specimen 1 find recorded is 
one of 271b. weight, and 3 ft. (S in. long. These interesting ani- 
mals, owing to drainage and improved cultivation, are every year 
becoming more and more scarce in old England." 
I at once set to work to cast this otter in plaster, having posed 
him in a graceful attitude. The cast turned out a very great 
success, every hair being shown, and the natural expression of 
the face wonderfully preserved. The casting of large animals in 
plaster is quite a new idea, and I beg to claim it as my own. 
I am not afraid of others doing this because they do not know 
the modus operandi ; long experience and practice have taught 
me. This grand otter measured 4 ft. 3 in. from the tip of nose to 
the end of tail, the tail being 1 ft. 3 in. long ; his weight was 
271b. 
When dissecting the body of the beast, I discovered what 
I believe to be a new fact as regards the oesophagus, 
or gullet. Holding up the pharynx I poured down thin 
plaster into the stomach, which, of course, hardened, showing 
its full capacity; it is 9| inches long and 15 inches round, and 
would hold rather over three pines of fluid. The oesophagus is 
1 9 inches long, and, strange to say, is a very small tube, the size 
of a half-inch gas-pipe, or about the size of one's little finger, 
and only one inch and three quarters round. I expected to find 
it a large dilatable tube, as in other fish-eating creatures. The 
best explanation that 1 can give of this curiously small oeso- 
phagus is that the otter chops up his food very small with his 
formidable teeth before he eats it. I had a bit of this otter 
cooked. When boiled, the flesh is of a brown colour, like cold 
boiled beef, and the flavour by no means despicable. I offered to 
send a slice in a letter to anybody who would like to taste it. 
Nobody accepted my offer. This cast is now in my museum 
at South Kensington. 
Weather AND Migrations, p. 105. — In confirmation of White's 
statement on this point I learn from Davy, the bird-catcher, 
that birds have sense and knowledge to keep in the south 
of England if their food is not ready for them at their breeding- 
